Poverty and hunger in Peru and the world have a great bond with the land, those who administer to it, and the state's role in this relationship.

In Latin America, 81% of the products we eat at the table of our homes every day, come from small family farms. These farmers generate more and more work in our countries, occupying between 57% to 77% of the economically active population.

In Peru, more than 90% of Peruvian agricultural producers are family farmers. Over 75% of the food we eat come from their lands and daily work. These farmers operate mostly in plots smaller than 5 hectares.

According to the program of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), hunger levels have been reduced significantly in our country. However, by 2015, there are still 2.3 million people who suffer from hunger.

The National Institute of Statistics and Information (INEI) indicates that until 2014, poverty affected 33.8% of the population of the Sierra, 30.4% of the residents of the Jungle, and 14.3% of the population along the Coast (including Lima). This poverty also has a profile to consider: 64% speak an Amazonian native language, 34.1% speak Quechua or Aymara, 39.3% are unpaid family workers and 42% are engaged in activities such as primary or extractive agriculture, fishing and mining.

To this day, social programs are focused on welfare issues, however, the investment for these farmers to develop their business in a sustainable way is quite small in relation to the population and economic weight of family farming. Eleven percent of Farmers receive technical assistance and 8% have access to credit.

In a recent Latin American Andean Amazon Forum held in Bolivia in September this year, Ecuadorian Eddy Timias, the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin, (COICA) stressed that only in the Amazon basin in Latin America live 390  indigenous peoples occupying little more than 170 million hectares and have a population of 2,586,012 people. The 24 million hectares of their territory in the region are in dispute.

These and other Amazonian indigenous peoples are the poorest of the poor in Latin America. Their territories are less secure, and the State offers less support to develop a forest-friendly agriculture, preserve the environment and value their ancestral knowledge .

The Congress in Peru, in October this year, has adopted a Framework Law on the promotion and sustainable development of family farming in Peru. The new rule has been enacted by the executive and should be regulated starting in the next 90 days from November 4 hereof.

All those who recognize, as indicated, the importance of family farming in our country, we need to encourage that this standard is regulated shortly.

Likewise, we need to recognize our country's agricultural inequality. The coastal pueblos have greater interests of big investments under irrigated areas but are easier to exploit. These areas do not produce more food for our country. The Andean and Amazonian area are lagging behind the State. Particularly the Amazon area has an additional potential, their forests. This means that for the Amazon, the State has a dual responsibility: supporting not just sustainable agriculture but also agriculture that is friendly to the conservation of Latin American´s pulse.

This has a full and direct relationship with poverty and hunger. Helping farmers to develop their potential, means improving economic activity that provides more work in Peru and could create  more jobs. This also means not investing in mono crops and unsustainable practices of pesticides and artificial fertilizers but rather tapping into the vast biodiversity and promoting alternative forms of agriculture for our peoples.

Is it possible to take on this challenge? Will we continue betting on handouts or selling policies of our territories to third parties that take our wealth? Can we make possible a social, cultural and environmentally responsible investment?

- Jorge Arboccó is peruvian anthropologist.